The Advent of Direct Analog Computers

The first computers were analog computers. Direct analog computers are networks of physical components (most commonly, electrical components: resistors, capacitors, inductances, and transformers) whose behavior is gov­erned by the same equations as some system of interest that is being mod­eled. Direct analog computers were used in the 1950s and 1960s to solve problems in structural analysis, heat transfer, fluid flow, and other fields.

The method of analysis and the needs that were driving the move from classical idealizations such as slender-beam theory toward computational

methods are well stated in the following passage, from an NACA-sponsored paper by Stanley Benscoter and Richard MacNeal (subsequently a cofounder of the MacNeal Schwendler Corporation [MSC] and member of the NASTRAN development team):

The theory is expressed entirely in terms of first-order differ­ence equations in order that analogous electrical circuits can be readily designed and solutions obtained on the Caltech ana­log computer. . . . In the process of designing thin supersonic wings for minimum weight it is found that a convenient con­struction with aluminum alloy consists of a rather thick skin with closely spaced spars and no stringers. Such a wing deflects in the manner of a plate rather than as a beam. Internal stress distributions may be considerably different from those given by beam theory.[794]

Their implementation of analog circuitry for bending loads is illus­trated here and serves as an example of the direct analog modeling of structures.[795]

Direct analog computing had its advocates well into the 1960s. "For complex problems [direct analog] computers are inherently faster than digital machines since they solve the equations for the several nodes simultaneously, while the digital machines solve them sequen­tially. Direct analogs have, moreover, the advantage of visualization;

computer setups as well as programming are more closely related to the actual problem and are based primarily on physical insight rather than on numerical skills.”[796]

The advantages came at a price, however. It could take weeks, in some cases, to set up an analog computer to solve a particular type of problem. And there was no way to store a problem to be revisited at a later date. These drawbacks may not have seemed so important when there was no other recourse available, but they became more and more apparent as the programmable digital computer began to mature.

Hybrid direct-analog/digital computers were hypothesized in the 1960s: essentially a direct analog computer controlled by a digital computer capable of storing and executing program instructions. This would have overcome some of the drawbacks of direct analog com­puters.[797] However, this possibility was most likely overtaken by the rapid progress of digital computers. At the same time these hybrid ana – log/digital computers were just being thought about, NASTRAN was already in development.

A different type of analog computer—the active-element, or indi­rect, analog—consisted of operational amplifiers that performed arith­metic operations. These solved programmed mathematical equations, rather than mimicking a physical system. Several NACA locations— including Langley, Ames, and the Flight Research Center (now Dryden Flight Research Center)—used analog computers of this type for flight simulation. Ames installed its first analog computer in 1947.[798] The Flight Research Center flight simulators used analog computers exclusively from 1955 to 1964 and in combination with digital computers until 1975.[799] This type of analog computer can be thought of as simply a less precise, less reliable, and less versatile predecessor to the digital computer.